


Golden Hour (ᴊ+ʀ)

by PastelBitches



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BoyxBoy, Gay, Jegulus, M/M, bisexualjamespotter, goldenhour
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:35:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24472159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelBitches/pseuds/PastelBitches
Summary: it doesn't last long but it's beautiful while it does(James+Regulus)also on wattpad, same name, same account.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 48





	1. Lily has a camera

Everyone in the schools knows James Potter is madly in love with Lily Evans, they also know she doesn't feel the same. When they were first years James always tried to impress Lily, loving her from the start, she hated it. Some say she hated him, but, nah she didn't. You can't blame the people who say so, it sure looks like it. She calls him names, she ignores him, she tells on him, she doesn't love him back.

Now in their sixth year things have gotten different. James' feelings have gone from a childhood crush to something... more? Lily is sad or angry most of the time, her and Snape keep getting into fights. She takes her anger out on James, Severus always told her everything was his fault. It's hard to shake off childhood beliefs. The name calling normally made James happy, as that's what she's always done, but now, he isn't a fan.

One morning, mid october of their sixth year, Lily was furious. Giving glares to anyone trying to talk to her, snarky remarks to people she considered an 'idiot'. The marauders decided to stay out of her way, for a bit.

"Feisty one, isn't she?" Sirius says, grinning at Lily giving people disgusted looks across the table.

"Leave her alone, Sirius. She's been going through some stuff with Snape." Remus tries. Him and Sirius have been dating since fourth year, so naturally, Remus pretty much has control over Sirius. 

"I just think she needs some cheering up." James adds, grabbing a piece of toast. 

"No, she does not." Remus said firmly, seeing the look in James' eye, "Don't even think about it."

James was thinking about the only thing he knew how to do when it comes to Lily Evans, asking her out. He was aware that Remus knew exactly what he was thinking about, "She might say yes this time, you know?" He says hopefully.

Sirius choked on his pumpkin juice, "Believe what you want" He says in a whisper. 

"Just, please, leave her alone until she calms down." Remus says, hoping James will listen, but knowing he won't.

Surprisingly James listened, kind of. He didn't ask Lily in the first two classes or at lunch. In potions with the Slytherins, Lily and Severus sat together-as they were set partners in the first week of school-things didn't go well. 

"Just let me-"Lily argued. Severus was doing everything in hopes of getting Lily to like him again.

"No, I can do it, don't worry" Severus smiled, putting his hand on her arm.

"Don't touch me!" Lily growled, "I'm not stupid! I can do it too!"

"10 galleons she punches Snivellus." Sirius whispered, looking over at the two of them.

"I'd just be losing my money." James adds. Whilst they were paying attention Lily did punch Severus. 

"Miss Evans, Mr Snape is not a punching bag" Professor Slughorn scowled. Lily let out a shriek of disgust and stormed out of the room.

Later on at dinner Lily seemed to have calmed down a bit, but even James knew it wasn't a good idea to talk to her. After dinner the marauders went straight up to their dorm, as it was time to plan a new prank. 

"Maybe we can... transfigure our banners into ravenclaw, or something?" Sirius suggested.

"Did that, fourth year." Peter reminded him.

"What about.... uh...." James thought, "We can take pictures of ourselves and duplicate them and stick them around the castle?" 

"I know a few spells" Remus added, "I bet someone has a camera."

"We have a plan, boys" Sirius confirmed, with his classic 'mischief' smile. 

"Lily has a camera." Peter said. "We might need to wait" He remebered. 

"Hmm, who do we know that will do anything that has to do will Lily Evans?" Sirius asked, getting up and walking around the dorm.

"Sirius..." Remus warned.

"I'll do it, the worst she'll do is yell at me. She does that all the time." James shrugged.

Sirius clapped his hands, "Tonight?" 

"Oh yeah" James smiled. Remus shook his head and Peter looked worried. 

"If she kills you, I warned you." Remus adds disappointedly. So the marauders went down into the common room, Remus with a scared look on his face, Peter, still worried, and James and Sirius with their mischievous grins. Lily was sitting in one of the arm chairs, in front of the fire.

James turned around and saluted Sirius before walking over to Lily. Sirius walking to the stairs with Remus and Peter.

"Hey, Evans" James said, trying to get rid of his grin. 

"Ugh, what do you want, Potter?" She glared.

"I just wanted to ask a question." He stated, "I was wondering-"

"No, Potter, I will not go out with you!" She yelled and stood up. "I rather die than go out with an annoying, selfish, daft dimbo like yourself!" 

"No, I-" He tried.

"Go away!" She yelled. When he didn't move she started, "How many times do I have to tell you! I don't like you! I never will! I don't see how people can like you! You're a prat, a pillock and a gormless twat! I HATE YOU!" She pushed past him up to her dormitory. 

James stood there, feeling tears in his eyes. He didn't want to cry in front of people, so he ran out of the common room. Knowing Sirius would try and follow him he used secret passage ways to hide. He managed his way down to the dungeons and sat on the cold stone. He started crying, confused he told himself, "Stop, why are you crying? She always does this." Pulling his knees to his chest, he noticed he had something in his pocket, put didn't get it out. He started to cry even more, maybe he isn't as self confident as he may seem.

Regulus was doing his prefect rounds in the dungeons, making sure no one was out of bed. He was heading back to the commone room when he heard it. Crying. He looked around until he could make out where the crying was coming from. He quietly walked over there and turned the corner to where the crying was.


	2. Deep Breaths

When Regulus turned the corner, it was empty. The person was gone and the crying was getting distant. He could only hear it because he knew it was there somewhere. He walk around for a minute, trying to find the source of the crying, until he couldn't hear it anymore. He turned around and started to head for the Slytherin common room. 

James ran, with worrying about filch and crying, it wasn't very fast. He ran into a secret passageway and stopped to catch his breath. He was nearly caught. He pulled out the marauders map from his pocket and looked around him, that's how he knew Regulus was there, he saw him on the map. From what Sirius says about Regulus, he'd probably just make fun of him. 

After he caught his breath he went to the closest bathroom. He tried to make it look like he hadn't be crying, he didn't want his friends to think he was weak. Soon enough he found himself at the fat lady. 

"Hinky-" James looked up, "Oi. Wake up." The fat lady woke up and scowled.

"Hinkypunks." James finished. The portait flung open and he walked in. He started to head up to the dormitory, but before he could reach the stairs, someone called out to him.

"Mate, you alright?" It was Sirius. He stood up from the couch and went over to James.

"Yeah, yeah. I-uh. I didn't think I should be around. You know- incase she yelled at me again." He lied. Normally James was a good liar. But not to Sirius.

Sirius noticed the red around his eyes and decided not to question it, "Alright, lets go to bed then."

The next morning the marauders woke up and started to walk down to breakfast. James, deciding he should pretend to be okay, was cracking jokes and smiling. Sirius knew he wasn't okay, he could tell, his smile was different. So he tried to make him happy, laughing and running around.

When they got to the great hall, most of the gryffindors started to look over at them. Normally when people looked at them they had just pulled a prank; this was different. They acted, scared? Afraid of what happened in the common room the night before. If Lily could make James Potter cry, what else can she do.

The marauders ignored this and sat down in their usual spot.

"We have charms first, yeah?" Peter asked, stuffing bacon in his mouth.

"Yeah, and Peter, wait until you finished chewing to talk." Remus answered, looking at an uncomfortable James. James was used to the attention, but not when everyone knew his secret, or guessed. He didn't tell anybody, no one saw him. He felt like he had been invaded. He didn't give anyone permission to read him, know how he felt, he hated it.

Suddenly everyone at the gryffindor table went quiet and looked at the door. Lily Evans walked in, looking calmer than she had in weeks. She sat with Marlene Mckinnon, Dorcas Meadows and Alice Fortescue. James tried not to look over at her, he knew he wouldn't be able to hold his tears in.

That didn't last long, as she walked over to James and the other marauders. She tapped James on the shoulder. "Hey, um, I'm sorry I yelled at you."

He didn't want to turn around, he felt the tears in his eyes. He did anyway, "It's okay." He said sheepishly.

"No, it's not. I didn't mean what I said. Well maybe I did, kinda" She tried to apologise.

James looked up at her, he knew he would start crying so he ran. He ran out of the great hall, he ran down to the dungeons, he ran into where he was last night.

Once he sat the tears started flowing. He tried to get them to stop. But he couldn't. They didn't stop. He was freaking himself out, he never cried this much. Then, he couldn't breathe. It was like he forgot how. He tucked his knees into his chest and put his head down, still trying, but failing, to breathe.

There were footsteps, someone running. But being caught up with trying to breathe, James didn't notice. Not until he felt a hand on his shoulder did he look up. Regulus Black. 'Oh no' He thought. The worry was filing him up, quickly, his breathing got worse.

"Hey, hey, calm down" Regulus whispered. It didn't do anything, so Regulus pulled the older boy into a hug. James was surprised at first, but he quickly started to hug him back. Regulus pulled them apart. "Hey, deep breathes. In, and out. In and out"

Once James' breathing was consistent, Regulus smiled at him, "Are you okay?"

James nodded, "Yeah, better at least. Thanks"

"Your welcome, come on, we have classes we need to go to." Regulus helped him up.

They walked in silence until they reached the stairs. "Why did you help me?" James asked.

"I know what it's like." He left before James could ask questions.

James walked to his charms class, knowing he'd be late. "Sorry, I'm late." He said and went to sit next to Peter.

"Are you alright?" Peter asked. James nodded with a fake smile. 

James skipped lunch, he knew he wouldn't be able to stand people looking at him like they know everything at him.

"Coming, Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"Nah, I have to catch up with some things." He replied.

Sirius gave him a sad nod and left with the others. As soon as they left James rushed into their bathroom, he looked at himself in the mirror. He never had the best self-esteem, so he gave himself a fake ego to deal, if people didn't know, he could pretend not to know himself. But now people know, and James knows more than ever. 'Ugly, selfish, daft, prat, twat' he thought. As he felt himself start to cry he remebered what Regulus said: 'Deep breaths, in and out.'


	3. "Prank ideas, anyone?"

Once the other marauders got back to the dorm, they started to head to transfiguration. James was slighly happier because transfiguration was his favourite. He was surpirsingly good at it an Minnie was his favourite teacher. He also knew that McGonagall would insist on talking to him if he came to class sad, so he put on a smile and faked it. 

Surprisingly, McGonagall didn't notice, she didn't look at him like everyone else, she didn't try to apologise. James liked this, maybe should fake it more often. So, he ran to catch up with the marauders, they were heading to their signature spot. An old tree just outside the herbology rooms. Sirius climbs the tree, Peter tries to climb the tree, Remus sits on the floor, normally James would stand but he didn't have the energy so he sat next to Remus.

"So, prank ideas, anyone?" Sirius asked. 

"Well, I was with the house elves earlier, maybe something with them? They're really nice." Peter suggests, finally getting onto the tree.

"Yes! I've thought about this for a while, I just needed to figure out how" Remus explains, "We can get the house elves to switch the uniforms, so Slytherins have Hufflepuff uniform, Hufflepuffs can have Gryffindor uniform, Ravenclaws with Slytherin and us with Ravenclaw." 

A smile creeps on all their faces, "This might go into the top ten." James said, with a fake laugh. He did think this was a good idea but he was too sad to actually smile. 

"Mission: switch uniforms. Takes place tonight." Sirius confirmed before talking to Peter about the house elves. 

As James didn't think anyone was paying attention to him, he stopped smiling and started to play with the grass. Constantly thinking about Lily, not letting tears come to his eyes.

"I know your not okay." Remus whispered to James, looking up from his book. 

James put the smile back on his face, looking over at Sirius and Peter for a second, before looking back at Remus, "What? I'm fine." 

Remus gave him a sad smile, "You just need to get over her, if she doesn't like you, move on." 

James looked down, "Yeah, yeah I know."

Throughout the rest of the day James tried so hard to get over Lily, thinking how he doesn't need her, how she was mean to him, how she hurt him, but nothing would work. He felt like he failed, another word to describe himself. Walking to the great hall for dinner he felt his smile fade off his face. He tried to put it back, but he couldn't, he couldn't get the smile to come back, it took too much work. He was so tired. 

"James, what do you think?" Sirius asked with a look on his face that probably said 'Remus told me no, but I think yes'. 

"Uh, yeah, uh sure?" James said quietly, having trouble getting the words to come out of his mouth. Sirius turned to Remus and Remus shook his head. As they started talking again, they walked into the great hall. After they sat down, James started to put food on his place but not having the energy to eat it. Instead he found himself looking for a certain boy across the hall. Regulus was missing. He wasn't at the Slytherin. 'I'm sure he's just late' James thought.

After dinner Peter and Remus went to the kitchens to talk the house elves into helping them. Sirius and James ran up to the common room and tried to act normal so no one would expect anything. They squished into an armchair and started a fake conversation. 

"Minnie is already talking about the end of year exams, it's tiring." Sirius says.

"I know. Why can't we have a break this year. I mean, we had the OWLS last year, and next year we have NEWTS. It's all too much."

"Maybe if you just studied" Frank chimed in. They all look at each other for a second, fakely considering it, then they all burst out laughing. Once they calmed down Frank asked, "What are you guys up to?" 

"Nothing, just talking about tests." Sirius answered. 

"Hmmm, yeah, no. You're pulling a prank, where are Remus and Peter?" Frank wondered. As if being summoned Remus and Peter walked in and called Sirius and Peter over. 

"Sorry Frank, we have business to take care of." Sirius said as him and James got up and walk over to the others. "So? Did it work?" Sirius hopefully asked. 

"Oh yeah, they are discussing how to do it right now." Remus smiled. 

"Good job, Moon-pie!" Sirius exclaimed and kissed Remus on the cheek. 

"Peter did most of it." Remus added. James always wanted to make sure Peter didn't feel left out so he went over to Peter.

"Good job, Wormy." James beamed and gave Peter a kiss on the cheek, making fun of Sirius.

"Ugh, thanks, but please, don't do that again." Peter laughed, rubbing his cheek. 

They sat around the common room until after curfew, they grabbed the map and the cloak and went down to the great hall. James transfigured the house flags. The flag above Slytherin table changing from Slytherin to Hufflepuff, the Hufflepuff flag changing to Gryffindor, the Gryffindor flag changing to Ravenclaw and the Ravenclaw flag changing to Slytherin. 

They quickly got back to their dorm and collasped on their beds. 

The next morning the uniforms next to their beds were Ravenclaw. Remus, waking up first, started laughing in relief that their prank worked. Soon the others woke up and started to get ready. Around five minutes after Peter woke up, someone came into their dorm. Frank, wearing Ravenclaw uniform, "I'm gonna kill you." He said before walking out and closing the door. They all started laughing. 

When they got down to the common room everyone was wearing Ravenclaw robes, most people were confused and angry, but some were laughing. The marauders made their way down to the great hall and everyone was wearing the wrong robes. They immediately looked over to where the slytherins were, almost all of them were very angry. "They look like they're gonna kill someone." Sirius laughed. They rest of them looked away, except James. He could see one Slytherin, in Hufflepuff uniform, trying to keep a smile of his face. Regulus. They made eye contact and James smiled, actually smiled, for the first time in awhile. 

When Dumbledore gave a speech, adressing the issue, it was obvious he found it funny. When people started to leave, McGonagall called the marauders up to her office. James, feelimg better, smiled at Lily while walking up there. She gave him a glare. Something told James it wasn't because of the prank, but he tried to shake it off. 

When they turned a corner, Regulus was there with his friends-most likely waiting for his class to start-he gave James a small smile, and put something in his pocket. James decided to look at it later, and walked into McGonagalls office.


	4. R.A.B

"Detention tomorrow and Friday." Sirius groaned. The marauders are McGonagalls favourites (even though she'd never admit it) so she was always nicer to them then the other teachers. Someone else would have given them detention for the weekend aswell, but not McGonagall, If she could she would give them one detention not two but having a reputation as being a firm, or as some say, strict, teacher she couldn't.

Walking out of her office there were more students waiting, Regulus and his friends still being there. Regulus looked over at James but James didn't see.

Regulus had seen what happened with Lily in the great hall that day he comforted James in the dungeons. He wanted to help James, if he'd let him, so he wrote a note and put it into James' pocket. Maybe he could help James and earn a friend out of it, a real friend. The people Regulus hangs out with aren't friends, they're more like protection from his parents, they didn't know this. Regulus isn't brave like his brother, he wanted to leave when Sirius did over the Summer, but he was scared, he wanted to let the sorting hat put him in Ravenclaw, but he was scared. So he decided it would be best to do what his parents want, to be the 'perfect' son, then they wouldn't hurt him. The stuff his 'friends' say, or his parents say, he hates it. They talk about killing people, muggles, muggleborns, blood-traitors, Sirius. The one thing he wanted most was his brother back, they were close for awhile last year until their parents found out. 

Hopefully James can make him feel better, braver. 

"I'm so glad I didn't pass history of magic." James sighs. Remus and Peter were in History of Magic whilst James and Sirius were sitting by their tree, having a free period. "Sirius?" James looked over, he saw a sleeping Sirius. Taking advantage of this situation, he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment. 

Meet me in the dungeons, you know where, if you want, at 9pm.

R.A.B

James smiled, for some unknown reason he felt like he had to go, but not like he was forced to, he wanted to. He quickly put the parchment pack in his pocket and picked up one of Remus' old books he left there. It was a defence book, for 7th years. 'Gods, Remus likes to go ahead.' he thought to himself. He still opened the cover and started to read. 

At some point he must of fell asleep, he woke up to, "Guys! Padfoot! Prongs!" James slowly opened his eyes and sat up from Sirius' shoulder. Remus. Remus and Peter were standing over them. "We've just left defence half way through class to come get you guys!" Remus complains. "Try not to fall asleep next time. Let's go." James and Sirius groaned but got up anyway and started to run with the others to the defence class.

"Sorry we're late." James apologises. He and Sirius rush to their usual sit, the far right table, at the back of the room. Peter and Remus sit infront of them. 

Professor Canmore shook his head at them, "Do better next time." he taunted and went on to teaching the class. 

"I don't like this guy." Sirius declared.

"We know. I really don't think he's that bad." Remus objected. 

"Failure! You failed! DO BETTER!" Professorm Canmore yells from across the room at a Hufflepuff in Gryffindor uniform. 

"Maybe he needs a bit of improving." Remus shrugged, knowing he definitely wasn't the best teacher. 

"If that was me he was yelling at, I'd probably cry." Peter cowers. 

"Me too." James said, thinking about Lily. 

After defence it was lunch and almost all of the students were rushing to the great hall. At first everyone was confused until they remembered the prank, seeing people with the wrong uniform sitting at their table wasn't a nice view, especially to the students who discriminate against other houses. James found that he didn't have much of an appetite, but that didn't stop him from making sure everyone else was eating.

"Frank," He said, "we have a game on the weekend, eat." He'd never admit it but he was definitely was the mum friend. Most of the time he'd put others needs infront of his, as long as everyone else was eating or wearing their jumper when it was cold he was okay. Sirius would tease him about this, saying he should be in Hufflepuff. 

Frank Longbottom started to put sandwiches on his place, "Thanks." Frank smiled. James, however, didn't notice. His eye caught a certain Slytherin boy across the hall. James frowned. Instead of eating, Regulus was reading. James wanted to go over there and put food on his plate and tell him to eat, but he couldn't. That's when he remembered the letter, he smiled and caught the younger boys eye, he smiled back. 

"Um, James? Why are you looking over at the Slytherin table?" Peter asks, turning James' attention from Regulus to him. 

"Just, uh, looking at them in yellow." He lied, "Peter are you okay?" James' asked, seeing Peter's face drain of it's colour. 

"What? Oh, yeah. I was, uh," He tried, "I was worrying about you, you've been sad lately." Peter finished.

"Oh, thank you, Wormtail. I'm doing fine, Pete." James smiled, thankful that he had great friends, "Make sure you eat enough." He reminds him, and Peter nods and started putting food on his plate. 

After lunch Peter had divination, Remus went to the library and James and Sirius went down to the quidditch pitch. There wasn't practice until tomorrow but they loved going down there just to hang out. They'd fly around, and do silly little pranks to the benchs, or they'd changed the water in the locker room showers to tea. This time they flew around and out into the forbidden forest, they knew that forest better than the castle. Around the middle of the forest there's a empty patch that the marauders like to hang out. Sirius and James flew down there and lit a fire in the middle of the patch.

After doing so Sirius pulled a packet of cigarettes, "Prongs?" He grinned, asking James if he wanted one. James smiled and grabbed one, lit it with his wand and put it in his mouth. "I don't get why Wormtail doesn't like these." Sirius said, normally Remus and Peter would be there with them, smoking, but Peter only does it to fit it, and Remus only sometimes. 

"Not for everyone I guess." James shrugged, blowing the smoke out from his mouth. Seeing Sirius shiver he said, "Should have brought a jumper." Sirius rolled his eyes with a laugh. 

After about half an hour of talking and laughing they rode their brooms back to the quidditch pitch. "I have a jumper in the locker room, if you want me to wear it you can go get it." Sirius told James, just trying to get James to do it for him. Of course he was going to, he rolled his eyes and gave Sirius his broom. He went down the path to the locker rooms, looking down, until he bumped into someone.

"Oh sorry, I-" He started, looking up at the person he bumped into. It was Regulus, the person he was unconciously thinking about. Regulus smiled at him, "It's alright." Then he walked off, leaving James in the path, forgetting what he was doing. James stood there, trying to remember what he was doing, Sirius' jumper. He ran to the locker room, hoping when he got back it didn't look like he had been gone for too long. He grabbed Sirius' jumper off a bench, which was actually Remus', and ran out and half way down to Sirius, stopping running before Sirius could see him. 

"Thank you." Sirius said, happy that James got his jumper for him, he grabbed his jumper and gave James his broom back. They started to walk back to the building, James getting excited about him meeting Regulus later.


	5. "You can trust me"

The rest of the day was pretty boring, they went to two more classes, hung out around their tree and hexed some kids. Until dinner, Remus, with complaints from Sirius, decided to sit next to James. He had noticed James being off, in a way, like he was with them but not actually there. At first he thought that James was just thinking about Lily but then he noticed James' random smiles.

"Are you alright?" James asked Remus, seeing his thinking look. "Yeah, just wondering." James nodded and started to put food on his plate, noticing Remus hadn't he put food on Remus' plate and told him to eat.

"Actually, what have you been thinking about all day, you seem... happier." Remus addressed. He noticed James' eyes get slightly wider. "Nothing, I've just been... uh... thinking about moving on from Lily. It's going well." That wasn't really a lie, he hadn't been thinking about Lily that much, maybe he really is getting over her. 

"Hmm, well, congrats. I guess." Remus said suspiciously, deciding not to question it, he went on to eat the food James put onto his plate. James turned around to eat, thankful Remus made them sit on the opposite side he normally did, he knew his eyes would automatically go to the Slytherin table in hopes of seeing a boy. 

After dinner the marauders were talking about how good their prank went, "I think it went pretty well don't you, boys?" Sirius smiled, putting his arms around James and Remus not being able to reach Peter. James put his arm around Peter, "Oh yeah. We need to think of a prank for Saturday instead of Sunday this week, full moon." Remus informs them. It had become marauder tradition to pull a prank on every Sunday, whether it's a big one or just small things. Once they dived underwater and swam to where the Slytherin common room and painted the windows, with help of Remus' bubble-head spell and some waterproof spell none of them knew. 

The boys decided to do planning some other time and set off to find Peeves. James and Sirius were the only students in the school who knew how to handle Peeves and would consider him their friend. Awhile ago Remus had told them a spell to get the armor statues to move. Peeves' favourite thing to was annoy Filch, and the marauders didn't mind doing that either. Remus and Peter, mainly Remus as Peter wasn't as good at it, would put the spell on the armor and send them to Filch, while James and Sirius talked to Peeves. "Peeves, how would you like to make a mess?" Sirius grinned. 

After leading Filch to the armor and having them attack him, without hurting him, and messing up his office, they laughed their way back to the Gryffindor common room. As it being 8:30pm most students are already in their common rooms, not wanting to break curfew. The marauders had another hour, so they sat around in an alcove in a passage opening up from the trophy room. The other marauders started to head to the common room, but James told them he'd catch up and that he had something to do. 

He turned around and walked the opposite direction, after turning a corner and being sure they couldn't hear him, he grabbed his cloak and map out of his back and started to run down to the dungeons. He saw Regulus on the map and smiled, he took off his cloak knowing it was a clear stretch, and hid the contents of the map. He walked over to where Regulus was. Regulus heard his footsteps and turned around, at first he smiled and then he looked at the floor akwardly. 

"I wasn't sure if you were coming." He admitted, still looking at his feet. "Of course I was coming." James smiled, "Is there a reason you wanted to meet or just for fun." He said, hoping Regulus didn't think that he didn't want to see him.

"Yeah, um, I just wanted to tell you, um, I'm here for you." He started. Looking up and seeing James smile gave him confidence, "You can trust me, I don't mean any harm, I just want to help you with what you're going through." He smiled, hoping to give off a nice vibe.

James hugged him, he wasn't sure why but he felt he could trust Regulus, despite what Sirius says. Regulus went stiff, he wasn't used to physical contact being a good thing yet he still found himself sinking into the older boys muscled arms. James pulled back, "Thank you, I needed someone to talk you, maybe you do to." He put in. Regulus shrugged.

They spent the next half an hour getting to know each other better before James needed to leave so the others weren't suspicious. Walking back, under his cloak, he tried to think of an excuse. James come up with the idea that left something under the tree from earlier and searched his back for a book. Sirius wasn't convinced, it wouldn't take that long to get a book from their tree, would it? James told him Filch was there and he didn't leave for awhile as he was cleaning and Sirius left it at that, believing him. 

The next morning James practically woke up with a smile on his face, he felt so happy, maybe he really did need Regulus. Remus and Peter couldn't really tell as James had been faking it but Sirius good, the two of them had 'vibes' as they called them, Sirius could feel James being happy, something he hadn't felt in a couple days. This immediately made Sirius extra happy, which made Remus happy, and for Peter, just seeing all his friends super happy made him happy. The marauders were bound to have a great day. 

Before leaving their dorm James wrote a note to Regulus, hoping to bump into him. At breakfast James and Sirius needed to get rid of some of their energy, so, naturally, they jumped on the table and Sirius started to sing obnoxiously while James danced. Sirius tried to pull Remus up but he just glared, so Sirius went over to Frank, Frank got on the table and started to join. James pulled Peter onto the table and he also started to dance, which was more jumping but it didn't matter. What mattered was that they were happy. Frank got some of his friends to join them and soon half of Gryffindor was dancing on the table. McGonagall walked over to them, planning on yelling at them but was instead pulled onto the table by Sirius, she gave him a stern look but that didn't stop him from grabbing her arms and dancing her around. Some Hufflepuffs got on their own table and started to dance, followed by Ravenclaws, soon almost all of the students were dancing on the tables, even some Slytherins, Regulus wished he could be over there with his brother, but for now he was okay with smiling at him (and James) from across the room. For a second everyone forgot about testing, and classes, and the war building outside. For a second everyone was happy.


	6. The daily prophet

The daily prophet

Things escalated pretty quickly. Soon the happy students turned into a group a miserable kids. Around five minutes after getting down from the table the owls flew in. Students with subscriptions to the daily prophet gasped, small sobs could be heard across the room. Fuck, James thought, looking at his copy of the news.

30 MUGGLES FOUND DEAD WEDNESDAY EVENING

Throughout the past couple years James liked to make friends with people from other houses, some of which are muggleborns. Reading the list of people killed he felt tears threaten his eyes, he recongised some of the names of parents of his friends. He tried to find the 2 people whose parents had passed but they weren't there. Suddenly James found he wasn't hungry.

"You know, I'm just gonna head... uh... off." He told his friends, not knowing where to go. Getting up he felt eyes on him, digging threw the back of his neck. Not wanting to be followed by the others he found didn't plan on going back to the dorm, or to class, he wasn't sure if classes would still be going. 

He found his feet taking him down into the dungeons, more specifically, where he had met Regulus the night before. He felt guilty that he could be happy when other people where downright miserable. James sat, expecting tears to come flowing out of his eyes, instead they stayed dry. James closed his eyes and put his hands above his head, trying to let the information sink in. Maybe he could get over it quicker. 

He felt someone slide down the wall and sit next to him, James could tell by this persons breathing who it was, so alike to someone elses, yet so different. James had a odd habit of memorising people's breathing, Sirius found it creepy when he first found out, but James finds it comforting in a way.

"I'm sorry." The voice says, if James wasn't sure who this person was he knew now. Not by the sound of the voice but by the words said, apologising for things that weren't their fault. 

"Me too" He replied. He put down his arms and opened his eyes, looking at the person who sat next to him for the first time, Regulus, he was right. Regulus looked up at James, they held eye contact for barely a minute before Regulus looked away and rested his head on James' shoulder. James wanted to feel weird, like the Slytherin was overstepping, but he couldn't, it felt... natural.

After what seemed liked hours the younger boy stood up, "Should probably get back" he said sheepishly, putting out a hand to help James up. James grabbed his hand and stood up, "Yeah" he said, "Thank you, some of those people are my friends parents." 

"I know some of them too, no one really knows but I like trying to make friends with people other than Slytherins, their a lot nicer." Regulus told him. James, remembering about the note he wrote focused on getting it out of his pocket, his eyes went wide, "Sorry." he apologised, pulling his hand away from Regulus', not realising he had been holding it the whole time. He pulled the note from his pocket and dropped it into Regulus' robes discreetly. 

"Oh, it's alright. I didn't really notice." He blushed, maybe he shouldn't have said that, he thought. His worries went away when James gave him a small, comforting smile and waved goodbye.

Classes were cancelled that day, so James' first instinct was to go sit by the tree him and his friends have 'claimed'. Unsurprisingly, they were already there, James smiled to himself seeing a smile dance on their faces, plans were happening, he could tell.

"Watcha planning?" He asked as he arrived to the tree. 

"The usual." Sirius says with a different smile, one that says 'I'm not gonna tell you so I can annoy you'. 

"Remus?" He looked over, Remus had the same smile and shrugged, "Peter?" Peter did the same thing. "And here I was thinking I had the best friends in the world, but no! My whole life is a lie." He exclaimed, being the dramatic one for once.

"You're turning into Sirius." Peter laughed. He looked over at the others and they nodded, "We were just trying to plan a prank to get people happy again, like we usually do, you know?" 

"We haven't thought of enough, we need to do prank after prank, so people keep worrying about what's gonna happen next and not the attacks." Sirius explained. This was another one of the marauders traditions, when bad news comes from the daily prophet they pull pranks so people keep smiling. 

"Most of out plans include Moony doing the important stuff, like usual, because of his freaky talent of never getting into trouble. But now that you're here, we can do so much more." Sirius smiles, "We need to do something that includes all houses as they're all pretty down." 

James thinks, he isn't normally the best at coming up with ideas for pranks, not when they are this important. Him and Sirius pull small things all the time, like giving the fat lady a moustache or hexing someones hair a different colour, but Remus almost always thinks of the good ideas. "You know how we always change people's hair colours?" He asked, which Sirius nodded in response, "There's gotta be a spell we can put onto the great hall doors so everyone's hair changes." He finished looking over at Remus.

"I'm not sure about colour, but there is a spell to get hair to stick up" Remus suggested, "We can put a charm on the room and when people enter their hair will try to stick up to the ceiling without hurting them, of course." He added, immediately looking at Sirius, who usually changes his plans to be more intense.

Instead it was Peter, "Or we could put the charm on every ceiling, so it takes longer to undo and people can't their hair down by leaving." Suddenly he started laughing, "Imagine Dumbles' hair." Soon all of them are laughing, the thought of the attacks pushed into the back of their minds. "We can do it while everyone else is in the great hall, we go in there soon and put the charm on, while everyone else is eating we go around the castle to get the other rooms. Minty will gives us food afterwards." Peter plans. Minty is a house elf who works in the kitchens, Peter is good friends with the elves, he spends a lot of time down in the kitchens talking to them.

"You're brilliant, Peter!" Sirius yells in happiness, messing up Peters hair with his hand, earing a smack on his arm and thanks. 

"Shit." James whispered, looking down at his watch, "We have detention in five minutes." He says to the other boys looking at him.


	7. Not in the way he thought

Not in the way he thought

Sitting down at the Slytherins table for lunch, Regulus hears a noise in his pocket, oddly like a piece od parchment. He didn't remember putting anything in his pocket so he pulled it out and in his hand lay a small piece of parchment, folded up at least twice. He unfolded it under the table, in case something important was inside. He read, 

Hey, thank you. Meet me at 11pm tonight, I wanna show you something.   
J.p

Smiling, he folded the note back into his pocket and started to eat.

The marauders secretly love detention with McGonagall, she tells them to do work from other classes ro read, most of the time she conjures up tea and biscuits. It's still precious time that could be used for pranking, but at least they aren't cleaning the dungeons. 

After detention Remus is trying his best to convince the others to study, "Come on, please, you need to study if you want good jobs." Remus knows it's pointless, he tries almost every day.

"I'll join you, I'd rather not live at home my whole life, and, Sirius, I'm sure my parents would be happy if you did, you probably shouldn't, it wouldn't turn out to be a good life." James agreed, genuinly worrying about all of their futures if they didn't study, which is something he never normally did. 

"There goes his hufflepuff again." Sirius muttered under his breath, "I think I'm alright, I'll live." He said louder.

Pretending he didn't hear Sirius' 'insult', James shrugged to Remus and started to walk to the library. Remus, still in shock of James agreeing, stood for a few seconds before walking hurriedly after James, getting suspicious. 

"What are you up to?" Remus asked him, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. 

"Nothing." He replied simply, with a smile that seemed to be stuck on his face. 

"So you really want to study?" Remus asked to assure himself that it was true.

"Yeah, I need to have good marks if I want to get into the auror training programme." James replied, with the smile still stuck on his face. 

Noticing the smile on his face Remus got more confused, "Are you happy to be studying?" James shrugged, and then tried to get the smile of his face, but it wouldn't budge. "Is something wrong? You've been pretty happy the last hour, even in detention?" Remus questioned, utterly confused.

James' mind found it's way to Regulus, trying to shake off the thoughts of him-as they confused him, why is he making James so happy?- he shook his head in Remus' direction.

Sitting down in the library, James grabbed a charms book, as he was behind in that class, McGonagall told him that he should work harder in charms, potions and herbology. He decided to tackle charms first. 

After around two hours, making it 3:30pm, surprisingly, Remus nudged James, telling him they should have a break. James nodded and stood up and walked over to one of the bookshelves, he put his book back exactly where he found it, tripping on the way. He looked back to where they were sitting, as Remus wasn't there James started to walk over to the doors. Remus gave him another confused look, James then noticed the smile threatening the corner of his lips. 

Walking around James nor Remus could find Sirius and Peter. "We're done for Moony. We aren't ever going to find them." James huffed.

"Must I do everything, we made a map remember, gods." Remus reminded him. 

They climbed the stairs up to Gryffindor tower, both mentally asking themselves why they didn't check in the common room first. Realising they had been preoccupied with their thoughts the question became, 'what were they thinking about that distracted them so much?'. 

Neither Sirius nor Peter was in the common room, or the dorm. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Remus said, pointing his wand at the map. Scanning the names with his eyes, he picked up a familiar one, "Peters down in the kitchens." Waiting for James to reply, he didn't, so he moved on. "Sirius is on the... third floor." James still didn't reply, looking deep in thought, "With... Regulus?" 

With mention of Regulus, James snapped out of his thoughts, thinking someone had caught on, "W-what?" He asked nervously, to no one in particular, not remembering who was there.

"Peter is in the kitchens, and Sirius was with Regulus, but Regulus left." Remus informed him, "Gods, I hope he's okay." He said in more of a whisper. 

James knew, from the small time Sirius and Regulus were friends last year, that Regulus really cared about his brother and wouldn't be aiming to hurt him. I hope their both okay, he thought.

"What? Why?" Remus asked. James felt his cheeks gain a slight blush, shit, I said that out loud, he thought. 

"I-um- it's just um-well." He tried to think of something to say, anything, "P-peter, I mean, maybe he's come across a nasty house elf." James informed him, sounding more like a question. 

"Hmm, okay" Remus obviously didn't believe him, but he needed to find him boyfriend, "I'm going to find Sirius, you do... whatever it is you do these days." He finished, walking out the dorm and putting the map on his bed, knowing exactly where Sirius would be.

As soon as the door shut James scrabbled over to the map, opening it up his eyes looking for one name, Regulus Black. In the process he found Sirius an old abandoned class room they use for privacy. Regulus wasn't in on the third floor like he had been, or the fourth, or the fifth, but he was on the first, he was in Moaning Myrtles bathroom. People go in there to cry, he thought. 

After that thought played in his head he ran over to his trunk and grabbed his invisibility cloak and put it over himself, still holding the map. He ran out of the dorm and out the common room. He couldn't stand the thought that Regulus was alone and possibly crying. He almost fell down one of the stair cases when it was crowded, and jumped onto another when it had started to move in the wrong direction. 

Getting to the first floor he turned theed corner so quick he might have fallen, something he was sure he had seen in a muggle movie. He reached Moaning Myrtles bathroom and bent down to put his hands on his knees, catching his breath. He should have stayed there longer, as his breathing was pretty bad, but the thought of Regulus crying hurt him. Checking the map to make sure he was still in there, James opened the door abd heard sobs coming from one of the stalls. 

He walked over and knocked on the door, "Regulus?" The sobs stopped and it became silent, "Regulus, it's me, James." He tried, hopefully Regulus trusted him enough to open the door. He heard a click and took a half step back, the door opened to a crying Regulus. His eyes were red and swollen, his lips cracked, and his knees looking like they could collapse. Sure enough, they did, James ran over to the boy and held him, he sat down pulling Regulus with him.

Hugging Regulus tight and playing with his, normally brushed but now messy, hair, "Reggie, what happened?" He whispered. 

At first Regulus seemed surprised wigh the nickname but soon gave in, "He yelled at me, he told me I was like our parents and that-that" Regulus tried to get out, more and more tears falling down his face, "He said he h-hated me." His voice wavering as he said 'hated'. 

"Aww, Reggie," James whispered, in a motherly tone, "He doesn't hate you, he hates your parents, I don't know your relationship with them so I'm sorry if that hurts you, but if he got over himself and realised how amazing and kind you actually are, he wouldn't be saying that." Luckily James is extremely good at comforting people.

"You mean it?" Regulus said, getting out of James' grip, looking at him and smiling. James nodded, "And with saying I'm amazing and kind?" He asked.

"Of course, you're nothing less, but so much more that words can't explain." James really did mean it, but maybe not in the way he thought he did.

"I'm so glad you're here, even though I'm not yours, you're my favourite person right now." Regulus really did mean it, but maybe not in the way he thought he did.


	8. "What's on your mind?"

What's on your mind?

It turns out Sirius wasn't okay, he was angry, unlike his brother who was extremely sad. According to Sirius, Regulus offended him saying something stupid about their parents. James doesn't know what Sirius thought Regulus said-Remus does but won't tell- but according to Regulus, he was trying to say sorry and Sirius didn't accept and said he hated him. Maybe stories come off different on each side. Stories definitely come off different on each side, but that's not so important right now.

James spent the next half an hour calming Regulus. Soon it became a normal conversation. Words came out of each of their mouths like it was the most natural thing in the world. They talked about things ranging from school to hippogriffs. Completely losing track of time, neither of them knew how long it was until dinner, Peter had moved back up to the common room, as well as Sirius and Remus.

Knowing that his best friends would be worrying about him, he said good bye to Regulus and went back up to Gryffindor tower, hoping they'd buy whatever excuse he had.

They didnt, he told them he had been in the library but they noticed his cloak and the map missing. Sirius suggested that he was sneaking outto hogsmeade, Peter suggested he was planning a prank, and Remus, Remus knew it was somthing else, something way more important. He wanted to know what it was before telling the others that their thoughts were entirely off.

James shrugged with a smile and let them guess what he was doing before climbing the stairs to their dorm. His watch-which he had forgot to put on in the morning after taking a shower- told him there was two hours until dinner at 6:30.

James thought back to the conversation he had with the other marauders before detention. They needed to plan many more pranks. He ran down the stairs back into the common room, Sirius and Peter were talking about all the possible things James was doing just ten minutes ago.

After thinking of small prank ideas for almost all of the two hours before dinner, they started to head to the great hall. Remus had told them the charm to get people hair to float up to the ceiling. Five minutes after they put the charm on the great hall ceiling, people started to walk in. Taking this as a signal to charm the rest of the ceilings, they decided who should do where and went off.

Their prank worked great, everyone was laughing at their friends hair, I'd not their friends, Dumbledores. Dumbledores long hair and beard floated up to the ceiling causing a very funny scene. It took all of the teachers and an hour to get all the charms off, for they didn't know which charm had been used, and theirs didn't come off with finite incantatem.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur. James' mind found it's way back to what he thought before, surely he was just overreacting. But, there was something he felt, a sudden warmth he remembered feeling one time with Lily. No, no, no. He liked Lily, like liked Lily, he couldn't have felt the same feeling around Regulus, unless...

As James lied in his bed, the others being sleep for 20 minutes, he checked his watch which told him there was 10 minutes until 11. At first James turned over, not thinking about the importance of the time, just that he was still awake. And then he remembered, he was supposed to meet the one he had been thinking of all night in ten minutes. He rushed to the end of his bed and picked out his invisibility cloak, he got up and went to Sirius' desk and picked up the map.

James made his way down the to dungeons, wearing his cloak and checking for people on the way, mainly Flich. As he arrived at their meeting spot he saw Regulus already there, twirling his wand around. James took off his cloak and hid the map.

"Hey." James said, startling the boy. "Sorry if I'm late, almost feel asleep." James informed him, it wasn't technically a lie, just not the whole truth.

"No, you're not, just thought I'd come early." Regulus stood up and walked over to where James was standing. "You-uh-said you wanted to show me something." He said, struggling to get the words out, even though he knew exactly what he needed to say.

"Oh yeah." James replied, he hadn't a clue what Regulus was talking about at first, he then remembered why he wrote Regulus the letter in the first place. "Follow me." James said, reaching out for the others hand, not realising he had done it, Regulus not realising he had grabbed James' hand, started to follow him.

"Oh, I love it here." James led Regulus to the astronomy tower, the tallest tower in the school. 

"Me too, but not right here, come." James walked over to the railing, "There's actually a second layer above here. Not many people know about it." He let go of Regulus' hand with a blush and conjured a rope ladder which led up, "We have to climb this, is that alright?" 

"Yeah, sure. You go first, though." Regulus assured him, James smiled and climb up the ladder. 

"Wow." 

"I know, I wonder why it was built, no one ever uses it." They sat close, looking out over the edge.

"Hmm. How did you know it was up here?" Regulus asked, curious as to who would willingly climb a ladder to who knows where."

"It was in a book in the restricted section. Odd, right?" 

"Yeah."

They sat in a comfortable silence, natural even. Regulus leaned in and placed his head on James' shoulder, James' head on his. James conjured up blankets when it got too cold and Regulus placed a heating charm on them.

"This is a nice place to just think and sit." Regulus said, understanding why James would come here.

"It is." James agreed, "What's on your mind?" 

"You." Regulus admitted before thinking about what he said, " Sorry, nothing, what are you thinking about?"He asked quickly, trying to act like nothing happened.

"You." James answered truthfully. 

"What?" Regulus looked up at James, "Me? Why?"

"I don't know, well I do, but I don't. That doesn't make sense, sorry." James tried to explain, lying. He knew how he felt about Regulus, he had felt the same thing with Lily... Sirius is gonna kill him.

"Maybe it does." Regulus disagreed looking away from James eyes. In all honestly, Regulus understood what James was feeling, just not what he was thinking about, he knew what it's like to know but in reality have no idea. "I feel like that too." He added, looking back to James.

"You are? About what?" Hope was rising in James, he tried to push it away.

"You." He admitted, once again before knowing what he was saying. Instead of trying to play it off he looked away, expecting James to run away, the damage has been done, why not make it worse, "I-I- I like you James, sorry."

"I like you too." James professed, in shock but not looking away from Regulus' head.

Regulus turned his head around to meet James' eyes, "Really." He said in a whispered, slightly leaning in.

"Yeah." James whispered, also leaning in, the slightest bit faster than the other.


	9. The Letters

It's been a few weeks since James and Regulus last saw each other, properly. James had told Regulus to meet him at the astronomy tower the next night, but he never showed. Every other night James would go up to the tower since that wasn't on the map, and every night in he'd look at dungeons, hoping Regulus would go the spot they had became friends. But he never did.

"So, I was thinking-" Sirius started.

"Never a good thing." Remus muttered.

"I was thinking that this month should be double time pranks." Sirius finished, ignoring Remus.

"I was actually thinking the same thing." Remus said with a surprised look on his face.

"Aw Moon-pie, we really are soulmates." Sirius sighs dramatically, falling onto Remus.

The marauders were sitting in a circle on the floor of their dorm, talking about anything that came to mind.

"Really? Are you sure you're up for the detentions, Remus?" James asked.

"Like I'll get more than two detentions, if you didn't already know, I'm the responsible one." he replied, the boys all looked at each other before laughing. It was true, everyone saw Remus as the calm and responsible one, everyone except the marauders. It comes in handy for Remus, Sirius and James however, not so much. Sometimes when Remus pulls something small like changing someone's hair colour for an hour or jinxing a quill, Sirius and James get blamed. 

Those weeks, despite not seeing Regulus, was one of the best James has ever had. He felt like he was himself, and he loved it. His friends truly do mean everything to him. They played small little pranks at first, like putting spells on peoples cauldrons-mainly Severus'. But the small things got Sirius' brain turning, eventually he thought of bigger pranks, most of which were pretty planned out, they just might need a bit of suggestion. One day Sirius and James came up with one of the best pranks Hogwarts has ever seen, which also got them in a lot of trouble. 

"Alright, Remus, got the potion?" Sirius asked, to which Remus nodded, "Good, Peter, house elves still happy to help, well look away?" Peter nodded, "James, got the hairs?"

"Oh yeah." James responded, uncurling his hand to show long hairs inside.

"Now or never, boys." Sirius yawned.

"Tired, huh? This isn't going to go well." Remus doubted, even though he knew of the trouble they'd get it, Remus was secretly all in. 

On November 1st, at 5:00am, the marauders sneaked out of the common room underneath James' invisibility cloak. As they walked down the moving stairs to the kitchens they went over the plan, for the billionth time.

"So, we go to the kitchens, and-" Sirius started.

"Find the tea, or the pumpkin juice, whatever. We all know the plan." James interrupted.

Sirius mumbled something like, 'Just making sure.' 

"Can we go back to sleep now?" Sirius grumbled whilst they were going back up to Gryffindor tower an hour later.

"This was your idea!" Remus told him.

"Yeah well, I thought it wouldn't take as long as it did. I need my beauty sleep." He explained.

Sirius did indeed get more sleep, half an hour, but still sleep. After Remus woke Sirius up, with great trouble, they started to get ready. 

"What have you all got planned for my birthday?" Sirius grinned at them while buttoning up his shirt.

"Nothing." James answered witha straight face.

"But- but I'm turning seventeen." Sirius informed them. James turned around to look at Sirius and shrugged, "ahh, I get it, you're just joking around, you've defintely planned a party!" 

"No, we haven't, sorry, it just didn't seem that important." Peter chimed in. Sirius gaped at him, then turned to Remus. He just shrugged with an apologetic look on his face. 

"What friends you are." Sirius muttered, walking into the bathroom to tie up his hair. As soon as he was gone the others looked at each other and smiled, trying to keep their laughs in. 

They made sure to get into the great hall earlier than usual to see their prank unfold. The only people in there were some year 5 and 7 Ravenclaws, too busy reading their textbooks to eat. Soon more and more people came. More Ravenclaws, quite alot of Hufflepuffs, and a few Slytherins. One of the Slytherins, James noticed, was Sirius' younger brother, Regulus. He looked... terrible. There were dark bags under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in days. He looked like he hadn't eaten in days either. 

The people who were already in the great hall had started to eat, teachers and students. Nothing happened at first, more people came in and soon the hall was filled. People were eating bacon or drinking tea. And then-

"Ahhh!" A Ravenclaw screamed at the sight of her friend, or Dumbledore? The marauders could tell it had worked when more screams and more Dumbledores appeared in the hall. Soon almost everyone looked like Dumbledore, expect some Ravenclaws too busy to drink, some Slytherins who didn't trust the sight of the marauders being early, the marauders and Professor McGongall. Half of the people were laughing, the others being horrorstruck. The actual Dumbledore, however, had a small smirk on his face, clearly amused but trying not to show it.

"I see I have an admirer, or perhaps, four." Dumbledore said, looking at the marauders who desperately tried to stop laughing. 

The polyjuice potion didn't last long as it was a small amount spread over a wide range. After everyone turned back McGonagall told the marauders to meet her in her office before classes. The owls flew in not long after. While James was looking for his owl to see if his parents sent him anything, he saw an owl with two letters in it, flying over to the Slytherin table. It dropped one of the letters infront of the younger Black brother, and then flew over to Gryffindor table. It dropped the other letter infront of the older Black brother and flew out. 

"Not again." Sirius sneered. The letter was from his parents. He went to open it when a pair of loud footsteps revealed someone to be running. Regulus was running out of the hall, looking like he was about to throw up. James was worried, and so was Sirius, but more for the thought of what his letter contains. Sirius had also seen the owl send a similar looking letter to his brother. So, he scrambled to get it open. 

"Oh bloody hell." He muttered, "They've just said they were 'giving me a second chance'. Something about recruiting new death eaters, oh look, they've put a date too. Apparently they are doing it December 18th. No thanks." Sirius told the others. Is that what was in Regulus' letter, James thought. Suddenly, James remember Regulus saying something about not wanting to be a death eater and then regretting he said anything. James rushed out of his seat and pushed through the other students, he ran out of the great hall. Unsure of where to go, he remebered, Moaning Myrtles bathroom. 

He sprinted to the bathroom and came to a halt right outside the bathroom. He heard footsteps, someone pacing. James slowly opened the door, he wasn't surprised to see Regulus pacing, tears streaming down his face. James closed the door quietly, and started to walk closer to Regulus. He noticed that James was there, it was about two seconds before he ran to James, giving him a hug which James returned almost immediately. 

After maybe five minutes, Regulus pulled away, tears still streaming down his face. "T-They want me t- no, no, they're forcing me to get the mark." He explained, more tears falling down his face, "I- I don- I don't want, I don't want to, I don't want to." Regulus said, his voice turning into a scream, falling down to the fall pulling James with him. It was like that for awhile, every now and then Regulus would muttered 'I don't want to' or 'they'd kill me', while James would whisper in his ear, 'I know, baby, I know'. 

Eventually Regulus stopped crying and turned around to look at James, "Thank you," He whispered. James smiled in return. Then Regulus face changed, he look... guilty? "I'm sorry." He said, looking away from James. 

"What do you mean?" James asked, Regulus was, once again, apologising.

"I ignored you, I'm sorry." He looked back at James to see his reaction, he just stared at him, clearly wanted a reason, "I- I didn't think I could. I like you, James, that's the problem." He explained.

"Why's that a problem?" James asked, slightly hurt, thinking maybe he doesn't think I'm good enough to like.

"My parents would kill me, and you." Tear forming in his eyes again.

"I wouldn't let them. I wouldn't let anyone hurt you." James told him honestly.

"We can't make that decision. I'm sorry." Regulus said, wiping his cheeks and standing up. James followed, "I wish we could," Regulus leaned into James and gave him a kiss. It was a small kiss, but it was everything in James eyes, even better than their first and few weeks ago. "Goodbye." And he left, he left James, alone, in the bathroom. 

It was James' turn to start crying, the tears were forming in his eyes and he felt his knees about to give out, when he remember that he need to get to McGonagalls office. 

"Do we wait for him? Or just go in?" Remus asked, standing outside of McGonagalls office.

"We're already late enough as is, we should probably go in." Peter answered Remus, "Sirius, are you okay?"

"Huh- oh yeah, fine." Sirius snapped out of his trance.

"No you're not, what's wrong, is it the letter?" Remus decided to push it.

"Where do you think James is?" Sirius asked, ignoring Remus.

"I- I don't know, Pads." Remus supplied.

"Do you think he's with him?" Sirius wondered, disgusted at the thought of it.

"With who?" Peter asked.

"Regulus." Sirius spat, seeing the confused looks on the others faces he elaborated, "I mean, me and Regulus both got a letter, after I read what mine said he ran, Regulus got a letter too, maybe that's why Regulus ran out and James followed him. I mean, where has he been sneaking off to every other night?" 

Remus thought this made perfect sense, but decided to try and convince Sirius otherways for the time being, "I don't think he'd do that to do. Wou-" Remus started but was interrupted.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late, have you been in? We should go in?" James greeted, out of breath from running. 

"Hold on," Sirius stopped James from entering, "Where were you? We were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago."

"I-Uh- I was busy," Sirius opened his mouth to ask what he was doing, "and it's none of your business." James interrputed, and pushed through into McGonagalls office. 

Sirius looked over at Remus, Remus gave him a smile, trying to calm him down. It didn't work and Sirius huffed and went in. Remus sighed and followed after Peter into McGonagalls office.


	10. "I hate you all so much"

"He's up to some kind of shit I'm telling you." Sirius whispered to Remus. They were sitting in defence behind James and Peter. The class was oddly quiet apart from Professor Canmores yells. Usually James and Sirius are laughing and joking around, but not now. So Sirius had to whisper. "I mean, when was the last time he asked Evans out?" He added, trying to prove his point.

"Maybe he's moved on." Remus suggested, only half paying attention.

"Impossible. Maybe he's been busy talking to my brother that he doesn't have time to flirt with Evans." Sirius decided, "Yeah, that's gotta be it." 

"No, James, I won't go out with you." Was heard from the distance. James was leaning over Lily's desk across the classroom. 

"James? Never called me that before. Anyway, I didn't want to ask you out, I wanted some help, and since your the smartest in the class-I'm not flirting by the way-I thought maybe you could help me?" James contradicted. 

Remus didn't hear what Lily said back to James, "Ughhh." Sirius groaned, "Well, he can't talk to Regulus during classes, but I bet he'll disappear tonight, you watch." 

"Yeah, alright." Remus responded. Sirius leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Would it really bother you if they were friends?" He asked, regretting bringing the subject back up. 

"I mean, not really, I don't know, just kinda wish he'd at least tell me." Sirius told him, "At least they aren't dating, thank you, Evans." He joked, not think it could be a possiblity.

For Remus, however, it was knew information to consider. He has been sneaking off, always taking the map with him. He definitely went after Regulus earlier, he might know something. But maybe they aren't romantically involved. James cares for everyone, especially his friends. If someone's crying he'll sit and comfort them, maybe Regulus is just a friend. 

Just get over it, James thought to himself, don't cry. Sitting in defence James had difficulty paying attention to his work, rather than Regulus. 

"Now, you all better know how to cast the spells listed in chapter 5 by the end of this lesson, non-verbally." Professor Canmore snarled.

"Fuck." James muttered to himself. He hadn't learnt any of the spells, he didn't even know what they were learning. His first thought was to ask Remus, but he was in some whispered conversation with Sirius. 

There's only one other person in this class who I know will have all the work done, James thought, It's worth a try. 

He got up, making sure Canmore was busy. He walked down to the front and leaned over Lily Evans' desk. 

She looked up, "No, James, I won't go out with you." 

"James? Never called me that before. Anyway, I didn't want to ask you out, I wanted some help, and since your the smartest in the class-I'm not flirting by the way-I thought maybe you could help me?" James contradicted. 

"Oh." She said in surprise, yes he had asked her for help before, but normally it's more, her doing his work rather than helping. "Why?"

"I had things on my mind, important things, and I wasn't paying attention. I know, I know, 'Sod off and learn to pay attention.' It was worth a try." He pushed himself off the desk and started to walk away. 

"No, I'll help," She told him, "help, not doing it for you." 

"Actually, you're the best." He smiled. She helped him with the spells he needed. Surprisingly he was pretty good at non-verbal spells. The bell went and James packed up his stuff. 

"Hey, Potter, if you don't mind me asking, what are they important things you were thinking about, you looked kinda sad." Lily wondered. 

"Oh-um. Nothing, yeah nothing." James responded, at first he felt like crying, but why should he waste his tears on things that aren't worth it, "Just people aren't- well, some people aren't my favourite right now." He continued, pulling himself together. 

"Yeah, I don't like a lot of people right now either." She agreed, "See you later, Potter."

By lunch time, James had decided to get things back to normal, how they were before Regulus. Somethings he didn't want to change, such as, he and Lily had a normal conversation, how he missed talking to Lily. But somethings were harder to change back, Sirius still wouldn't talk to him. 

"Yo, Padfoot." James called. The marauders were sitting at the Gryffindor table at lunch. James needed a way to get Sirius to talk to him again. "Mum and Dad wanna know what you want for your birthday." It was true, they did want to know. 

Sirius shrugged, clearly knowing what he wants but not wanting to talk to James. "Just talk to me, what did I do?" James asked. 

"Sirius." Remus said as a warning. 

"Are you or are you not friends with my brother? That's all I want to know." Sirius grumbled. 

"No, I'm not." James answered.

"But you followed him out of the great hall this morning, right?" He pushed.

"He was crying, I saw his face when he was running out. I don't like when people are sad, you know this." It wasn't exactly a lie, James really didn't like when people are crying, but Regulus wasn't crying when he ran out.

"So you're not friends with him?"

"No."

"Alright."

In five minutes they were already laughing, telling each other things they wanted to tell each other earlier but couldn't because they werent talking. 

"So, she agreed to help you?" Sirius asked, looking shocked.

"Yeah, it was surprising, maybe she likes me." James hoped.

"I don't think so." Remus said, "Sure." Sirius said, "Maybe!" Peter said, all at the same time.

"Thanks for having hope in me, Pete." He said with a smile at Peter, but turned to Sirius and Remus and glared.

At 6:30 two days later, Peter, Remus and James were standing over a bed. Each holding a large bucket of water. 

"On the count of three," James whispered, looking down at the sleeping person, "One, two, three." 

They each tipped the water down onto the bed. 

"AHHHHH!!" Sirius screamed. He sat up and looked around at the others with a deadly glare. Oh if looks could kill. 

"I hate all of you so much." Sirius said slowly and with hate. "I will make it my mission to see that all of you are dead by the end of today."

At first they looked scared, but then started laughing. "Happy birthday, mate." James said inbetween the laughter.

"You woke me up, pouring water on me, on my birthday! You never mess with Sirius Black on his birthday!" He remembered. The other marauders looked at each other, and then ran out of their dorm and down the stairs, Sirius following behind. 

James had pushed to the front, really not wanting to get killed. 

"Potter?" A voice in the common room said, "Why are you running?" 

James jumped the rest of the stairs, and found Lily Evans standing against the couch, "No time to explain-" 

"Get back here!" Sirius yelled down the stairs, struggling to run because he was soaking wet. 

"See you later, Evans." James run out of the portrait whole, leaving Peter and Remus in the common room, silently hoping they make it out before Sirius kills them.


End file.
